William Bradford Vs John Smith

2 Pages 392 Words

Graham Anderson
2/07/02

William Bradford vs. John Smith

It does not take close scrutiny to see that both John Smith’s essay “A Description of New England,” and the excerpts from Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, are both a collogue of elaborated ad dilated truths. Obviously, one cannot “kill in one day with his hook and line one, two, or three hundred cods…” as John Smith stated on page 21. Or overlook the exaggeration of William Bradford when he said about the Indians “the barbarians showed them no small kindness in refreshing them, but these savage barbarians, when they met them were readier to fill their sides with arrows than otherwise…” One must in this reading look to all sources and beneath the covering of opinions to find the real truth.

Looking at these writings it must be taken into consideration that both men were writing from different perspectives, and for different reasons. William Bradford for instance, had just come ashore to an unknown land during the height of winter. After completing a three month voyage with roughly 120 people on a ship that was only 90 feet long and 23 feet wide, and loosing his wife along the way, an ill outlook on life is better a state than many would have in his situation. Later on however, Bradford makes another statement saying that “others were exercised in fishing, about cod and bass and other fish, of which they took good store…” and “besides water foul there was great store of wild turkeys, of which they took plenty…” page 20. It seems that Bradford made his comments too quickly, and turned his judgment another way.

John Smith wrote in his essay on page 21, “Here nature and liberty afford us that which in England we want, or it costs us dearly.” In his essay Smith elaborates thickly upon small truths to get his sales pitch heard. Luckily for him readers in England at the time knew only what they heard from d...